The government has announced that it will unveil a refreshed workforce plan in the summer, focused on shifting care from hospitals and into the community. In a recent statement, the government said that: "too much care is being delivered in hospitals because of historic underinvestment in the community."
Recent data shows:
- there are almost 16% fewer fully qualified GPs in the UK than other high-income countries relative to our population
- the number of nurses working in the community fell by at least 5% between 2009 and 2023
- a reduction of nearly 20% in the number of health visitors - who can be crucial to development in the first 5 years of a child’s life - between 2019 and 2023
- the number of mental health nurses has just returned to its 2010 level
The original workforce plan would increase hospital consultants by 49%, but the equivalent rise in fully qualified GPs would have been just 4% between 2021 to 2022 and 2036 to 2037.
Health and Social Care Secretary, Wes Streeting, said: "Lord Darzi diagnosed the dire state of the NHS, including that too many people end up in hospital because there aren’t the resources in the community to reach patients earlier.
"Our 10 Year Health Plan will deliver three big shifts in the focus of healthcare: from hospital to community, analogue to digital, and sickness to prevention. We will refresh the NHS workforce plan to fit the transformed health service we will build over the next decade, so the NHS has the staff it needs to treat patients on time again."
Amanda Pritchard, Chief Executive of NHS England, said: "The NHS is nothing without our incredible staff and having a sustainable workforce is a key building block for an NHS fit for the future - that’s why we committed to update the plan regularly so that it reflects the changing and growing needs of patients.
"While the NHS is delivering more care to patients in the community, with the expansion of virtual wards, community diagnostic centres and neighbourhood hubs, part of our longer-term goal is delivering even more care out of hospitals, and we’ll work closely with the government to refresh the workforce plan, alongside the upcoming 10 Year Health Plan."
The government claims that the expansion of the hospital workforce has "come at the expense of other care settings" and the proportion of the total NHS budget dedicated to acute hospitals has continued to rise, while the proportion of the NHS budget going to primary care has fallen by a quarter in just over a decade - from 24% in 2009 to just 18% by 2021.
Through a refreshed workforce plan, alongside reform and investment, the government says that it is taking action to ensure it has "the right workforce in the right place at the right time to deliver its 10 Year Health Plan.
